“God,” Leavitt says, putting on his shirt.
“Okay, yeah, let’s go and get people,” Tom says, finishing drinking from my hydration system, ignoring my offer of a hand as we step back over the body.
Chapter 14
“R
eally? Do you feel better now? Really?” Wilde was less than pleased to be woken by two bloody cadets and one neat one. I was nearly livid to be woken by Wilde, two bloody cadets, and one neat one. “We have another dead person here now. IA might as well just open a branch right here --- as often as you three find bodies.”
“Ma’am, I’m sorry,” Leavitt feels bad.
“Ma’am, I didn’t mean to kill her,” Tom says.
“Ma’am, I’ve got it all recorded,” guess who said that. just guess.
“Of course you do,” I say. I’m in no mood to be formal.
“Okay, I’ll ask, how and why?” Harris is leaning in the doorway, looking tired and disgusted.
“Sir, Leavitt said I make noise in my sleep so I was recording it to study,” Card says.
“You were seriously going to watch a video of you sleeping?” Harris asks.
“Yes sir, I don’t get to be there when I’m sleeping so I thought it’d be interesting,” Card says.
“Of course you did,” I say.
“Tom you admit you did strangle her?” Wilde asks.
“Yes, ma’am. she was threatening cadets Card and Leavitt with the gun and knife I was afraid for their lives,” Tom says.
“Okay---how did he get fully dressed when you two are still in PT?” I ask, gesturing at Card.
“Sir, he got dressed while I finished fighting her, sir in his defense he also got me the first aid kit,” Tom says.
“Sir, in his condemnation he didn’t untie me,” Leavitt says.
“Cadet Leavitt, why is that such a calamity still? You weren’t being raped anymore,” Card says.
“Cadet Card if it has to be explained to you---”
“Okay, stop talking,” I say, waving a hand at all of them. I seriously need a drink. Maybe after this Hawking will let me have one.
“All right, all three of you go with Harris, he’ll get you clean things to change into with the exception of Card who is already clean, you’re spending the night in another dorm for now, we’ll get IA to close off the scene, no Cadet Card you cannot have the tablet back in the foreseeable future since there is a crime recorded on it you’ll be issued another one,” she says the last bit when Titus looks crestfallen and glances at his bunk where his precious tablet lies quietly recording all this idiocy. Leavitt was right he did love the thing. Didn’t mean less bodies for us though. hmm, maybe he isn’t the anti-Christ. You know, maybe he is. maybe he isn’t.
“Yes, ma’am,” they say, in unison, doing their best to step out of the room without stepping on the body or in the blood.
“Right, I’ll go and get IA,” Wilde says.
“I’m going to a bar.”
“You’re coming with me.”
“I’m going to a bar.”
“You’re coming with me.”
“Yeah, I’m going to a bar.”
“You’re coming with me.”
“Really think I’m going to a bar.”
“You’re coming with me.”
Needless to say I go with her.
“Any idea why she did it?” I ask, as I lead the cadets out of the dorms. Leavitt and Card look depressed about that. Poor things they were probably liking having their own room, city trash that they were they’d probably shared a room with more than one other person most of their lives. Now it’s covered in blood. Oh well.
“Sir, I think she missed Tyrell,” Leavitt says.
“Sir, that was what it seemed like,” Card says.
“That’s too bad, huh, never can figure people, apparently not this class anyway,” I say, opening the door to let them outside, for exactly two seconds I consider taking them to the SBM, space battle management dorm, like I was supposed to. But Liesel is in there. and these three tend to find bodies independent of the fact that’s it’s their fault death kind of tends to happen around them. Yeah, I’m not taking them there. Thankfully, Wilde and Thorne think I’m an idiot---okay that’s not totally fair I also think I’m an idiot. But they think I’m an idiot without motives and I have motives. So I’ll act like I misunderstood and set these tykes up back in their old barracks where they won’t cause anybody any trouble.
“You’ll stay in your old barracks just---go to your old bunks,” I say, as we walk down the path towards the indoctrination barracks, “There will be clothes and things there for you to change into.”
“Yes, sir,” they all three mumble, a bit dejectedly.
“Are you all right, do you need to see a doctor or---anything?” I ask, looking back at them. Mostly I’m worried about Leavitt he’s sensitive and has had a rough time of it, poor chap. But Tom was the one in the knife fight so she might be cut, though she swore the blood on her was not hers.
“Dr. Truth Juice?” Leavitt asks.
“Pass,” Tom says.
“I’ll go see him---”
“Nobody was worried about you Card—are you sure that was understandably traumatic,” I stumble, looking at their hard, lonely faces in the moonlight. Such sad, miserable children. How did they get to be so hardened?
“I’ll watch motivational videos on the internet,” Leavitt says.
“I’m just a bit hungry,” Tom says.
“I really will go and visit Dr. Truth Juice,” Titus says.
“No, you’d just get him high on his own stuff and try to figure out who cut his lips off—”
“Sir, so?”
“So I can’t knowingly let you do that----what did you say?” I ask.
“I was hungry,” Tom says.
“No, you,” I say, Leavitt.
“I would watch videos on the internet to help me with trauma,” Leavitt says.
“They have those?” I ask.
And that is how I end up sitting in the DFAC with three cadets drinking cold milk and eating cold biscuits and watching very helpful videos on the internet telling you how to live your shit life and be happy doing it.
“So, how’d it go with IA?” yes we are sitting in a bar. No I’m not drinking anything apparently Hawking has a good rapport with the local bars. I hate her so much.
“Turns out, Darla Richards didn’t go straight to the boy’s dorm,” Wilde says, coming back with beers for her and Hawking and water for me. I hate her too. I hate both of them. let them die in the apocalypse see what I cared.
“Didn’t she?” I ask, raising my eyebrows, “Do tell.”
“She went and broke her boyfriend out of IDMT, Tyrell Nolan, he was still there and being sedated for further study,” Wilde explains.
“So why come and go after Leavitt and Card, why not go Bonnie and Clyde like young people tend to?” I ask.
“We don’t know, Dr. Truth Juice is still out cold and there’s no sign of Nolan,” Wilde says.
“What, they can’t find him?” I ask, surprised.
“Not hide nor hair, I told them to have fun looking, and I had Kip make an announcement for all cadets to lock their room doors,” Wilde says.
“Ok who is Dr. Truth Juice and why was this girls’ boyfriend in IDMT?” Hawking asks.
“You remember, Dr. Marrow, that freak from the Academy, the one Tony told us about, he’s working here now,” Wilde says.
“Lipless,” I say.
“Don’t explain that—”
“You took my alcohol and you think I’m not going to---”
“Please I’m eating---”
“Somebody cut off his lips---”
“The sobriety is for your own good—”
“and tits—”
“I’m not listening---”
“And finger tips---”
“Not listening---”
“And stuffed them in his mouth and taped it shut,” I finish, prying her hands off
of her ears so she hears.
“That’s disgusting, why is he still here?” Hawking asks.
“He loves his job,” Wilde says, shrugging.
“Why are they letting him still be here?” Hawking asks.
“He says he’s fit for duty,” Wilde says, shrugging.
“Does he know who did it?” Hawking asks.
“He says ‘one of the paleish ones with a crew cut, that describes 200 people walking around, he thinks it was a girl but not positive,” Wilde says.
“And since he drugged me and half of the IA guys apparently, none of us care that much to find out,” I say.
“Okay, back to my other question, why was Richard’s boyfriend in IDMT?” Hawking asks, “Or is that sinister and disgusting as well?”
“Only slightly,” I say, “He tried to kill Card.”
“And he succeeded in killing two other cadets,” Wilde says, “Decapitated one, mutilated the body, put the other in the meat grinder for the pies.”
“Okay, I remember you told me a bit of that----do we know why he did this?” Hawking asks, wincing.
“No, Dr. Truth Juice was finding out,” I say, “Though all things considered they are tentatively blaming thig girl for Ebbel’s death.”
“So, she kills Ebbel, waits a couple of days, breaks her boyfriend out, and then decides to take rape Card and Leavitt? That’s just plain weird,” Hawking says.
“No, we haven’t gotten to the self-immolation and the guidons with the mark of the beast, soon it’s going to seem pretty normal,” I reassure her.
“Please tell me he’s exaggerating,” Hawking says.
“He’s not,” Wilde says, taking a long drink.
“Okay, explain James after one thing---how is that idiot Harris still alive in all this?” Hawking asks, shaking her head.
“I know, right? Ebbel dies before him. that’s the end times for you,” I say.
“I don’t know, the cadets sort of like him, though, and he’s got a soft spot for this group,” Wilde says, “So I guess the crazy ones decided not to kill him.”
“Or they have something special in store,” I say.
“Like what?” Wilde asks.
“Like blowing us all up,” I say.
Chapter 15
“D
o you think our families will be coming yet?” Quentin asks, looking out the window of Logan’s dorm room.
“They said they’d have them in by nine,” Liesel says, she’s looking as well. I’ve got no family to look for so I’m sitting on the floor with Logan helping him fix his whites up. He and Liesel are both battle management positions, so they are having the ceremony with us.
“I don’t know what I’ll tell them,” Logan says, sadly. He’s been low ever since the pilot’s test. Frequent hugs and bedtime stories have helped. “It’s all been so horrible and I don’t want them to think I had a miserable time.”
“You did have a miserable time,” Cadet Obvious says from where he’s reading three tablets at once. I gave him mine and Logan gave him his and Liesel gave him hers if it would keep him occupied and out of our way while we try to get ready. I don’t know how he had access to new books when he was complaining just the other day that he didn’t have any but he was begging for tablets so we just took what we got.
“I know, but I don’t want them to worry about me,” Logan says, wringing his hands.
“Just tell them that---you made friends----and tell them about how Titus never could flip you in combative, that was funny and---”
“And?”
“I’m working on it, it has been horrible!” I say.
“And about how I got sent to IDMT twice, after the numerous violent deaths and sexual assaults there is an element of humor to them getting me high twice for no reason,” Quentin says.
“Are you done with the iron?” Titus asks, looking down.
“If you’ll talk less, I’ll just do yours after I do mine,” I say.
“Okay,” he says.
“Why don’t you have an iron?” Logan asks.
“We’re not in our room because SOMEBODY got in a knife fight in the middle of it,” Titus says.
“Oh, I’m sorry Titus, next time, would you rather I let you be raped so that there won’t be a crime scene in your room?” I ask, very, very sarcastically.
“NO!! Strangle anybody you want in my room, Tom, I love and appreciate you,” Quentin says, very quickly.
“No, but if you’d rolled her through the window, the crime scene would have been outside---just---saying---something to improve on ----for next time---ow, stop it----,” he laughs the last bit as I crawl up onto the top bunk where he’s lying to tickle him.
“Next time!?” Quentin says.
“Stop talking about killing people please, I’m traumatized enough,” Logan begs.
“So am I,” Titus says, wiggling away as I leave him be.
“I’ll traumatize you---what’re you reading anyway?” I ask, giving his leg a good shove before crawling back to the floor.
“Books,” he says.
“I got that; I thought you’d read them all,” I say.
“I did, I have new ones. Thank you Leavitt,” he says, adding the last part robotically.
“You got him books?” I ask Leavitt, surprised.
“No, I told Wilde that if she didn’t give him access to the military library, then she was going to have another murder to investigate,” Leavitt says.
“Is he that bad?” Liesel asks, amused.
“You don’t even know---we’re not in our room anymore because it’s a crime scene --for the best possible reasons, don’t look at me like that Tom---so instead where are we? A freaking closet. A freaking closet with mats, and supplies and things and on a nightly basis he rearranges them into various demonic shapes and symbols looming over my pallet,” Leavitt says. “So, he needed entertainment.”
“Titus, why’d you do that to him? That’s mean,” I say.
“It was funny,” Titus says, as though it should have been obvious.
“What did he rearrange and how?” Liesel asks.
“Towels, PT mats, brooms which for your information look a like sycles in the dim light,” Leavitt says, pacing.
“So that’s why you’re all in my room?” Logan asks.
“Yeah, my room is a crime scene too, technically, but my roommate’s the one I strangled for the best possible reasons so I’ve got a closet to myself while stupid beggars have to live with each other,” I say. I stayed less in the closet, though due to frequent bedtime stories and hugs, I almost always wound up in Logan’s room. in a real bed, In the top bunk because he’s afraid of heights. not in a closet. And Logan had company. It was win win for me.
“Yes, so I had to make sure he was amused so he’d quit trying to drive me insane,” Leavitt says.
“Yeah, now I’m learning Isylgyn and Russian,” Titus says, happily.
“At the same time---”
“No don’t ask him questions he’ll keep talking and the point of the entertainment is he doesn’t talk,” Leavitt cautions Logan.
“Yes, King, at the same time with different parts of my brain it isn’t that hard,” Titus says, happily.
“Titus, you know if you read all that now in three days you’re going to moping around bored that you don’t have anything to do at night when other people are sleeping,” Liesel says.
“But then I’ll be moping now,” he says, suspiciously.
“Not if you go and ask Kip to look at the computers to see if your family’s come. You know he’d let you,” Liesel suggests.
“What---you want me to see if your family’s come but you’re too nervous to ask?” he guesses.
“Yeah, please?” she asks, “I know you know what they look like you played with my tablet and probably went through my messages yesterday.”
“Okay,” Titus says, sitting up and powering off the tablets.
“Get some meal bars while you’re on your way, you know they’ll hav
e us lined up for hours and won’t let us eat anything,” I call after him, as he leaves the room.
“Thank you,” Leavitt says, grabbing Liesel’s shoulders and shaking her. “Thank you.”
“Has he been that bad?” I ask Leavitt, amused.
“Yes! At this point any moment free of a practical joke or random sarcastic commentary is a beautiful one,” he says.
“Your mum going to come down?” I ask him, now that Titus is gone.
“I hope so, I hope they got her fare, I know she couldn’t afford it and they wouldn’t let me wire money,” he says, “On her last message she told me not to worry but that’s it and I do worry.”
“I wonder if my dad’s coming,” Liesel says.
“Didn’t he say he was?” I ask.
“Yeah, but he’s really odd. He doesn’t tell me what he does for a living, and I don’t even know what he looks like,” Liesel says.
“Why didn’t somebody tell me till now that Nolan is still loose?” I ask, walking up to Wilde and Thorne angrily.
“Because we knew this would be your reaction?” Thorn says.
“I honestly forget to talk to you,” Wilde says.
“How can they not know where he is? What is he eating grass and hiding the woods?” I hiss, “This is a military base for God’s sake, how hard is it to find one Cadet?”
“Apparently very,” Thorn says.
“And why aren’t you concerned? You’re always concerned about everything,” I say, annoyed.
“Oh, I’m heavily medicated,” Thorn says.
“I am concerned, but that’s the MPs jobs, not ours. We’ve had our flight certified cadets locked up cleaning things for the past week, much to their dismay---”
“But now that Card has access to the full library we’ve had remarkably fewer, death threats, insidious pranks, and machinery malfunctions—”
“And the rest are at their A schools elsewhere on base. We are doing the best we can,” Wilde says, “We told the cadets last night, so they could be on guard. They aren’t to leave their barracks.”
“You told the cadets and not me?” I ask, annoyed.
“Like I said, I tend to forget to talk to you, sorry,” she says.
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